Denver Broncos / NFL

Broncos' Knowshon Moreno emerges as first-rate running back

Knowshon Moreno gets some air while running past J.J. Wilcox of the Cowboys. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

There was a time when LeSean McCoy was correct.

A long time. For more than 3½ seasons, McCoy's opinion would have fallen in with the majority.

"Knowshon (stinks)," McCoy, the Philadelphia Eagles' running back and the NFL's leading rusher, tweeted Sunday.

The Broncos' first-round draft pick in 2009, Moreno in his first three seasons and two games into his fourth had averaged a disappointing 50.5 rushing yards per game.

It got worse before it got better. The Broncos' coaching staff thought so much of Moreno after a fumble in an early-season loss to Atlanta last season, they took away his uniform. Moreno spent the next eight games wearing sweats and a ball cap.

Then San Diego cornerback Quentin Jammer tackled Broncos running back Willis McGahee on the kneecap, and everything changed.

When the Broncos (5-0) meet Jacksonville (0-5) on Sunday at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Moreno will be the hot back in a game that also will include Maurice Jones-Drew, who only two seasons ago won the NFL rushing title.

In the Broncos' past 11 regular-season games — last six in 2012, first five in 2013 — Moreno has run for 841 yards, or 76.9 per game. The Broncos would not be undefeated if not for Moreno. In their 51-48 victory Sunday at Dallas, Moreno rushed for 93 yards and gained 57 receiving, 11 coming on a clutch, third-and-10 conversion grab off the turf that kept a game-tying scoring drive alive in the fourth quarter.

Moreno has gone from first-round bust to first-rate redemption story.

"I've seen him mature a lot, on and off the field," Broncos coach John Fox said. "He's dealt with different things, and he's dealt with it maybe better than we did here recently."

Even when Moreno was struggling to meet the expectations of a No. 12 overall draft choice, he was a tough son of a gun. He ran hard. He was a physical blocker. He played with emotion.

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Speed was his issue, and during the 2011 lockout, Moreno ill-advisedly worked out so hard to gain quickness that his weight dropped to about 190 pounds. He played sparingly behind McGahee before suffering a season-ending knee injury.

There was enough concern about McGahee's age, and Moreno's knee, for the Broncos to draft running back Ronnie Hillman in the third round in 2012.

Moreno, who is now closer to 215 pounds, bounced back for a terrific finish a season ago, but there was enough concern about the knee injury he suffered in the playoff loss to Baltimore that the Broncos drafted Montee Ball in the second round.

Entering training camp, with Moreno limited because of the knee, the Broncos' grand design was for Ball to eventually become the every-down back, Hillman to become the speed-back complement, and Moreno to fill the third-down role.

"You definitely want to be labeled as an every-down back," Moreno said. "Situations happen, and you're in there to handle them. But if you can do the job on third down, you want to be out there on first down and second down too."

A third-down back also could be called a "passing down" back, and in the Peyton Manning-led offense, Moreno always was going to have a large role this year. But he wound up earning much more. Ball and Hillman got their chances, but lately they've only been spotting Moreno.

As for McCoy, he may be a nice running back, but he's a terrible tweeter. His recent tweet was so 2010. And so inaccurate.

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